In the 1970s, Vancouver residents waged a 10-year battle to keep freeways from its urban core. They successfully defeated a plan that would have run a highway through its Chinatown and run along its downtown waterfront.

Now a traffic light at the edge of city limits signals that the interstate from Tijuana to Canada has come to a stop and is now a city street.

"We are the only North American city of any significance without an interstate at its core," said Gordon Price, an urban affairs professor at Simon Fraser University, who used to serve on Vancouver's City Council.

The reporter gives an excellent review of what a city as an entity can do to shape it's future.

Having spent most of our time together in the city of Atlanta and now looking forward to living in Vancouver, we can appreciate what a "real city" should be . . . .